Radio frequency (RF) designs typically use a local oscillator (LO) to generate a signal that may be used, through signal processing techniques, to recover (receive) or transmit baseband signals. For example, the LO signal may be mixed with a baseband signal to create a second signal that may be an intermediate frequency (in the case of a double conversion transmitter) or may be a signal ready for transmission (in the case of a direct conversion transmitter). Similarly in the receive case, the LO signal may be mixed with a received signal to create an intermediate frequency or a baseband signal. Oftentimes, the LO signal is buffered to more effectively distribute the signal to locations within an integrated circuit.
LO buffers often suffer from many shortcomings. For example, the gain of Local Oscillator (LO) buffers may vary significantly, due to manufacturing process, temperature and power supply variations. These problems have been addressed in the prior art using analog regulated LO buffers, but the prior art may have a disadvantage of having a relatively noisy output. Consequently, what is needed is a LO buffer with relatively less noise.